[en] The purpose of this post is to reveal a historical site located in Costa Rica that was built to honor Nazi Germany. It serves as a reminder of the crimes and horrors that this regime carried out against many minorities, specially the Jews, and against the Human Race in general. Even though it was built to commemorate a possible victory of evil, it must be preserved to remind us of our past errors in order to build a better future.

Back in World War II, the US Department of State was closely watching Costa Rica and Argentina, the two Latin American countries where Nazism had more followers. It was said that Adolf Hitler, after conquering the entire world, was going to come to Costa Rica to celebrate his victory over Central America (and World War II in general), and then travel to Argentina to celebrate his triumph over South America. There was a spot for the “party” that was to be celebrated in Costa Rica, a farm owned by an Italian in “Alto del Fierro de Ochomogo” (in San Rafael, cantón de la Unión, off the current main road from/to San José-Cartago). The monument has an area of several hundred square meters, big enough to house all the soldiers and followes who Hitler was supposed to address in this location. It has a big eagle in the upper central part, a symbol found in many great empires, including the Third Reich (Traditional German eagles face leftwards, but Nazi eagles, just like the one in this monument, defiantly face rightwards). The last time the eagle was painted was in 2005. Additionally, it was built over a natural spring, a mythological symbol representing the purity of the so-called Aryan race, who Hitler so much cherished. It also has an aqueduct system which was supposed to supply the many Germans and Italians who were going to settle in the area. Back in 1939, when the monument was built, the current road from San José to Cartago didn’t exist, and the only way in was with horses through a dirt road, which helped them keep the site hidden from the government, which would later declare war on Germany, establish concentration camps for German and Italian residents, and confiscate their properties. At the time in that area there was no electricity, so the Germans had stands to put torches built into the walls in order to lighten the place and the ceremony. The current site is owned by the state-owned water company (Acueductos y Alcantarillados, AyA) and can only be seen from the outside, in the public road which leads to the Experimental Farm Alfredo Volio Mata, owned by the University of Costa Rica. Even today this monument still remains unknown to the majority of the population.

卐 This monument must be preserved as part of our historical heritage, regardless of it’s terrible and very nagative original purpose. Forgetting or destroying it would be a disrespectful denial of an episode of human history which affected millions of innocent people, specially the Jews. In order to preserve this site it should be declared a “Costa Rican Heritage site”and be used as an educational tool to explain the horrors of Nazism worldwide and the importance of protecting our Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to make sure that nothing like this will ever happen again. Please don’t hesitate on leaving a comment in this post, as it is a topic of human interest.
[es] El propósito de este artículo es dar a conocer un sitio histórico localizado en Costa Rica que fue construido para conmemorar a la Alemania Nazi. Es un testigo de los crímenes y horrores que este régimen llevó a cabo contra muchas minorías, en especial los Judíos, y en contra de la humanidad en general. A pesar de que se construyó para conmemorar una posible victoria del mal, se debe preservar para recordarnos de nuestros errores del pasado y así poder construir un futuro mejor.

Disclaimer: The use of the swastika (卐) and the names of the pictures in this article are by no means an endorsement of the Nazi ideology. They are for illustration purposes only.The author of this site is against any movement which promotes discrimination of innocent people based on ethnicity or religious affiliation.

“From Costa Rica last week came word that Refugee Economic Corp. of Manhattan has purchased for a reputed $1 an acre the 50,000-acre Tenorio estate in Guanacosti Province to become a Jewish community where refugees from Nazi Germany may enjoy peace and raise soya beans. Elaborate plans included clearing jungle, road building, construction of an airport. Costa Rica has long had a large colony of German coffee and banana growers, many of whom are pro-Nazi in sympathy. Last week Costa Rica’s anonymous Nazi leader-announced: “Costa Rica is a free country in which all foreigners enjoy equal rights. However I have received special instructions from Propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels. . . . Germans in Costa Rica will not do any kind of business with the members of the Jewish colony here.” “

[en] Nazi graveyard left behind by a Third Reich expedition to the Amazon… Known as the “Guayana Project, it was a mission of exploration and a testament to just how grand the Nazi’s imagined their empire would be. As the report brought back to the Third Reich explained ‘The two largest scantly populated, but rich in resources, areas on earth are in Siberia and South America. ‘They alone offer spacious immigration and settlement possibilities for the Nordic peoples… For the more advanced white race it offers outstanding possibilities for exploitation.’

[en] “Bohdan Koziy (born 23 February 1923, in the town of Pukasivtsi, located in the Stanisławów Voivodeship, Poland, died 30 November 2003, San Jose, Costa Rica ) was a Ukrainian war criminal, member of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police.”

[en] Category X: Failure to submit pertinent data : Those countries which did not respond to the questionnaire, but clearly did not take any action whatsoever to investigate suspected Nazi war criminals during the period under review. Costa Rica is in this list.

9- “San Jose is getting vivid reminder of Nazi horrors” (AM-Costa Rica) http://amcostarica.com/120408.htm[en] “The Dutch government is donating a statute of Holocaust victim Anne Frank, the young German girl who hid with her family in a Dutch attic until discovered by Nazis during World War II…The bronze statue, a work of Dutch artist Joep Coppens, will be unveiled on Avenida 4, the newer of San Jose’s pedestrian boulevards, now called Bulevar Unión Europea.”